The Philosophy of History
As a busy history student you are probably also interested in more quantifiable outcomes of how TOK can make you a better history student who gets better grades.
Obviously an interest in history TOK issues will help you with your TOK presentation and essay. History is a privileged ‘area of knowledge’ in that unlike most IB subjects, history has its own section in the TOK syllabus. Why does history has its own section, whereas Geography or Biology, for example, do not? In brief, history is special with its own very unique set of epistemological problems.
To your TOK teacher you are a history specialist. You have been studying history for a number of years and can therefore expect special attention when the TOK class comes around to study history as an ‘area of knowledge’. You can anticipate being quizzed on the big epistemological questions of our subject: so, what exactly is history? Or how can we know what happened in the past? Or what is the point of studying history? You can also expect smug grins from your geographical friends if you give the impression of never having considered these questions before. But be reassured this is not your fault. It is a product of what the great English social historian Raphael Samuel once described as history’s ‘naive realism’. Historians like to do history; they don’t tend to think much about how they do it.
But other than your academic street cred, what else can a serious approach to TOK history provide? Put simply, it will make you a more thoughtful and original history student. For example, the close (micro) document analysis of Paper 1 will benefit from a broader philosophical (macro) approach to what makes sources useful or reliable.
The essay writing process of Papers 2 and 3 is enhanced with an understanding of how history is written, where interpretations come from and why historians might disagree. And most obviously, the major research assignments of Internal Assessment and Extended Essay will score much more highly if there is evidence of an original, self-reflective voice that is in control of both the narrative and the methodology behind the assignment.
Methodology - Systematic study of methods that are, can be, or have been applied within a discipline, in this case history.
This section of the website therefore is not so concerned to provide you with a guide to the history section of your TOK course, but rather to rather bring the TOK knowledge issues into your study of history. It urges you not just to do history but to think about it.
Obviously an interest in history TOK issues will help you with your TOK presentation and essay. History is a privileged ‘area of knowledge’ in that unlike most IB subjects, history has its own section in the TOK syllabus. Why does history has its own section, whereas Geography or Biology, for example, do not? In brief, history is special with its own very unique set of epistemological problems.
To your TOK teacher you are a history specialist. You have been studying history for a number of years and can therefore expect special attention when the TOK class comes around to study history as an ‘area of knowledge’. You can anticipate being quizzed on the big epistemological questions of our subject: so, what exactly is history? Or how can we know what happened in the past? Or what is the point of studying history? You can also expect smug grins from your geographical friends if you give the impression of never having considered these questions before. But be reassured this is not your fault. It is a product of what the great English social historian Raphael Samuel once described as history’s ‘naive realism’. Historians like to do history; they don’t tend to think much about how they do it.
But other than your academic street cred, what else can a serious approach to TOK history provide? Put simply, it will make you a more thoughtful and original history student. For example, the close (micro) document analysis of Paper 1 will benefit from a broader philosophical (macro) approach to what makes sources useful or reliable.
The essay writing process of Papers 2 and 3 is enhanced with an understanding of how history is written, where interpretations come from and why historians might disagree. And most obviously, the major research assignments of Internal Assessment and Extended Essay will score much more highly if there is evidence of an original, self-reflective voice that is in control of both the narrative and the methodology behind the assignment.
Methodology - Systematic study of methods that are, can be, or have been applied within a discipline, in this case history.
This section of the website therefore is not so concerned to provide you with a guide to the history section of your TOK course, but rather to rather bring the TOK knowledge issues into your study of history. It urges you not just to do history but to think about it.
FOCUS: THE ROLE OF THE HISTORIAN
TRUE ‘HISTORICAL’ KNOWLEDGE REQUIRES THE INTERVENTION OF THE HISTORIAN, WHO WILL;
- DECIDE WHAT QUESTIONS NEED ANSWERING, OFTEN DETERMINED BY CURRENT AFFAIRS SELECT SOURCES TO USE, BASED ON WHAT QUESTIONS NEED ANSWERING
- INTERPRET THOSE SOURCES AND MAKE DEDUCTIONS FROM THEM;
- ORGANISE AND PRESENT THEIR MAIN CONCLUSIONS TO THE PUBLIC
| an_introduction_to_the_philosophy_of_history.pdf |
Additional reading
Is History an art or a science?
| art_or_science_-_history_debate.pdf |
| historiography_art_science.pdf |
| scihist_history_art_of_science.pdf |
Philosophy of History
| re-thinking-history.pdf |
| tok_historty_eh-carr-what-is-history-1961-chap-1-the-historian-and-his-facts.docx |
| philosophy_of_history_article.pdf |